https://archive.org/stream/LifeAndLifeWorkOfPopeLeoXIII/LifeAndLifeWorkOfPopeLeoXIII_djvu.txt
The question was also raised
by a Cardinal, 'What is to be done with the Pope if he becomes a
heretic?' It was answered that there has never been such a case; the
Council of Bishops could depose him for heresy, for from the moment
he becomes a heretic he is not the head or even a member of the
Church. The Church would not be, for a moment, obliged to listen to
him when he begins to teach a doctrine the Church knows to be a
false doctrine, and he would cease to be Pope, being deposed by God
"If the Pope, for instance, were to say that the belief in God is
false, you would not be obliged to believe him, or if he were to deny
the rest of the creed, 'I believe in Christ,' etc. The supposition is
injurious to the Holy Father in the very idea, but serves to show you
the fullness with which the subject has been considered and the ample
thought given to every possibility. If he denies any dogma of the
Church held by every true believer, he is no more Pope than either
you or I; and so in this respect the dogma of infallibility amounts to
nothing as an article of temporal government or cover for heresy."
The Archbishop spoke severely of the misrepresentation that had
been made about his views of infallibility by an interviewer of a city
paper. He also read an extract from a Baltimore paper, which he
pronounced insulting. The interviewer made him say the dogma
could not be published until after it was signed. He said that the
publication of the doctrine of infallibility need not wait for the official
Himself.
242
THE VATICAN COUNCIL
- signing of the acts of the council before the proclaiming of the dogma,
after it had been pronounced upon by nine hundred and seventy-five
Cardinals, Bishops, Abbots, and Patriarchs — that the public needed not
to wait for it until it had been signed. He said that he came there to
proclaim the personal infallibility of the Pope. In his own words, he
was a true Roman Catholic, as he had said there, as he had written in
his letters to the Pope, as he had proclaimed in the council, as he
had affirmed in Cincinnati and elsewhere in this country. In his dis\
Hussion with Mr. Campbell, he had indicated the infallibility of the
Church in the strongest language and with the strongest arguments
of which he was capable, and he was not going back on all that he
^had hitherto said upon the subject.
TEXT OF THE DOGMA OF INFALLIBILITY
The Archbishop then read the text of the dogma of infallibility,
translating it as he read. He prefaced it thus: "I want the editors
of the newspapers and the reporters who are here present to send it
on the wings of the press, north, south, east, and west, that I, John B.
Purcell, Archbishop of Cincinnati, am one of the most faithful Catho-
lics that ever swore allegiance to Rome."
His Grace said in conclusion: uThe Bishops were, many of them,
afraid that outside influences would be brought to bear on the
Church, and very often they said, 'It is not the Pope with the white
cassock that we have to fear, but certain ecclesiastics who dress in
black cassocks, who may influence the Pope and make him say what
they please, — but wherever there are men there will be vices and
defects. So the Holy Father has to watch as well as to pray, and he
has sometimes to be even a little distrustful of those who pretend to
be his officious minions, and who tell him things they should not.
"But, my dear friends, as I have said, where there are men
there will be defects and vices, and wherever will you find in history
anything to compare with the freedom from vice, error, crime,
Digitized by
THE VATICAN COUNCIL
243
and disorder such as you will find in the conduct of the Catholic
Church by the Pope whom God has now placed over her? In the
tenth century there were persons who had political power in Rome
and were thrust into the chair of St. Peter; but God soon thrust them
away; and if you are ever called to answer this argument against
your Church, you can say that, in the genealogy of Jesus Christ there
were very bad men, and that as that did not make Jesus Christ bad,
so in the pontifical succession also, there were a few bad men, but that
did not make the pontifical succession vicious. And beyond this, we
can see the Church going on her safe and glorious course for eighteen
hundred years, amid all sorts of dangers and persecutions, to glorious
immortality. Or to take another image, we can see the bark, guided
by Christ and His vicars, riding through the winds and waves, and
sure to reach at last the haven of refuge with its precious freight of
immortal souls."
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